While his beloved Sunderland Football club were taking a pounding at the weekend, boxer Paul 'The Mackem' Holborn was dishing out a beating of his own.
On away soil, too!
The Sunderland fighter was lucky enough to miss the football at the weekend as he made his first defence of the International Masters Lightweight title he won last summer at the Stadium of Light, writes Graeme Anderson.
His w
inning of the belt was achieved over 10 hard-fought blood-splattered rounds but that was nothing compared to the display he put up at the weekend in retaining it.
He could hardly have had a tougher task – fighting unbeaten army boxer Amir Unsworth in his own back yard.
Holborn and his trainer Tommy Conroy travelled to Sleaford in Lincolnshire to defend the title against a fighter full of bluster, who embarked on a war of words before the showdown, talking about how he was going to win the title.
But the quietly-spoken Wearsider let his fists do the talking.
Holborn had to show great character in front of a 700-strong crowd, dominated by a strong forces element, who gave partisan backing to their man.
But Holborn kept his nerve and his self-belief and outboxed his opponent over 10 three-minute rounds.
At the final bell, vastly experienced referee Terry O' Connor lifted Holborn's arm, giving him victory by a margin of four clear rounds.
Holborn's trainer Conroy said: "I couldn't have been prouder of Paul. Personally, I think he only lost one, maybe two rounds.
"But he outboxed Unsworth from start to finish and even though Unsworth was an army lad and fighting fit, he was tired out by the last couple of rounds and Paul was able to finish comfortably.
"It was a great win and it takes a lot of bottle to go out in front of a crowd like that and face a fighter who is completely fired up and then outbox him."
Holborn said: "It was unbelievable and it was a fantastic feeling to know I'd won at the bell. I lost it for a couple of seconds and went jumping up and down on the ropes – which probably wasn't the brightest idea as there were more than 500 or so people in the crowd who weren't best pleased that their man had not won!
"I've got to say thank-you though to the 40 or so people who travelled down to support me. I couldn't have had better backing than I got from them.
"And I was absolutely over the moon that me and Tommy and them could travel back to the North East with the belt staying in Sunderland."
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